'Miracle Plant' Could Grow on Paper Industry
The fibers of a desert plant grown by University of Arizona scientists could someday revolutionize the paper industry, cut water use and provide a viable crop alternative for Arizona's farmers. Read More
The fibers of a desert plant grown by University of Arizona scientists could someday revolutionize the paper industry, cut water use and provide a viable crop alternative for Arizona’s farmers.
According to Thomas Stauffer, who reported the development for the Arizona Daily Star this week, scientists at the University of Arizona, who are studying hesperaloe funifera on two experimental farms, are excited about its prospects.
“It’s not a so-so crop where it will be a little bit better than what we’re already using. It could be a phenomenal crop for Arizona,” William McCloskey, a UA plant scientist tolad Stauffer. “If you could get the paper industry interested, you’ve got a crop that could be grown on a lot of acres in Arizona without a lot of resources.”
At least one owner of a paper company is interested, and has championed the little-known plant for more than a decade.
“Hesperaloe is the wonder fiber of the world,” said Al Wong, president of Arbokem Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, in the report. “This is a unique product that could save trees and directly benefit farmers.”
But getting Arizona’s farmers to replace water-thirsty crops such as cotton and alfalfa with one that takes five years to mature won’t happen until there is a market for the plant’s fibers. Wong and the UA hope to start that ball rolling this fall by harvesting some of the 50 acres of hesperaloe at the UA’s Maricopa Agricultural Center, Stauffer reported.
“It’s going to take an entrepreneur with some vision like Al to make this a reality,” said UA botanist Steve McLaughlin, who discovered hesperaloe funifera in northern Mexico. “Al is long on ideas and short on cash as opposed to most of the industry, which is long on cash and short on ideas.”
According to UA scientists, sesperaloe fibers could act as the reinforcing material in composites used for products such as building panels, car doors and bicycle frames. Other advantages as reported in the Arizona Daily Star:
- Fiber qualities: To make a good sheet of paper, you need fiber cells about 3 millimeters long and 20 microns thick. Fibers from softwoods such as southern pine are long enough but too thick. These fibers make paper that’s strong but too thick for printing, so manufacturers add fibers from more expensive hardwood trees, which are about a millimeter long and 18 microns thick. Thinner fibers make softer, smoother paper that prints better. Hesperaloe fiber cells are about 3.5 millimeters long and about 16 microns thick, so they combine the qualities of both types of wood fibers, and therefore are ideal for a variety of paper products. Hesperaloe fibers could also act as the reinforcing material in composites used for products such as building panels, car doors and bicycle frames.
- Water use: Like many desert plants, hesperaloe basically shuts down during the day and grows mainly at night, so it requires little water.
- Yield: Hesperaloe plants McLaughlin has been growing for 12 years can be harvested every three years, and there seems to be no limitation to how long the same plants can be mowed for harvest, he said. “It’s like a giant grass, so the question is, how many times can you mow your lawn?” McLaughlin said.
- Saving trees: One part of hesperaloe pulp could replace three to four parts of conventional softwood pulp, Wong said. This means the economics of using hesperaloe make sense even though it will cost about twice as much as wood pulp.
- Crop diversity: Many of the state’s farmers focus on one or two commodity crops such as cotton. The prices for cotton, Arizona’s largest agricultural crop, have dropped to about half of what they were in the 1950s. “The old idea that you specialized in something that you were good at growing, those days are changing,” said Jill Davis, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
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